Christian Theological Discourse on Music: The African Instituted Churches (AICS) Liturgical Experience

Prior to Western colonial contacts, music was an integral part of African social, religious, and community life. However, Western church music traditions have frequently been regarded as normal in Nigerian Christianity. The purpose is to critically examine how music functions as a medium that integrates traditional African spirituality with Christian doctrine, thereby fostering a distinct African Christian identity within African Instituted Churches (AICs). The study engages selected theological perspectives by Rudolf Otto, David Brown, and Ferdia Stone-Davis to interpret musical experience as a possible site of divine encounter, embodied spirituality, and theological knowing. These perspectives are situated within the African musical context to highlight the decolonial impulse behind the indigenization of church music in AIC worship practices. The research employs ethnographic observations, interviews with church leaders and congregants, and analysis of liturgical music practices within selected AIC communities. The findings reveal that music in AIC worship is a dynamic, participatory practice that facilitates communal engagement, spiritual empowerment, and theological reflection. The discussion highlights how this musical liturgy challenges conventional Western worship models by offering an embodied and contextualized expression of faith. The study concludes that the musical practices of AICs represent an authentic contextual theology of worship. This challenges assumptions about the norm+ative superiority of Western church music traditions. Based on this insight, the paper recommends that African churches and theological institutions intentionally promote indigenous musical expressions in worship. It further calls for sustained scholarly engagement with African music as a legitimate locus of theological reflection in contemporary African Christianity